7.31.2011

STEVE McCURRY: The Iconic Photographs

Rabari Tribal Elder, from McCurry's "The Last Roll of Kodachrome"
Photograph (c) Steve McCurry

Fishermen at Wiligama, Sri Lanka
Photograph (c) Steve McCurry

Afghan Girl, 1984
McCurry's 1985 portrait of the blue-eyed Afghan refugee girl is one of National Geographic's most popular magazine covers

Steve McCurry: The Iconic Photographs, Phaidon Press; Limited Edition

Steve McCurry is credited as having taken "the world’s most recognizable photograph," a young Afghan girl refugee in 1985, and then 17 years later defying odds and finding her again in remote Afghanistan. This work, along with selected images from "The Last Roll of Kodachrome," slide film discontinued in 2010 by Kodak after 74 years, will be exhibited at the Open Shutter Gallery in Durango Colorado this the Fall. He will also give a special slideshow and lecture at the Durango Arts Center, September 9th, 100% of the proceeds from the lecture will go to support Imagine-Asia.org, a not for profit organization, he founded.

McCurry is the recipient of an unprecedented four first prizes from the World Press Photo contest, as well as the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad Showing Courage and Enterprise. McCurry’s images span the globe documenting varying ethnicities and significant cultural icons.

September 9 – December 1, 2011
Open Shutter Gallery, Durango CO

7.28.2011

MARK LAITA: Amaranthine, Sea, and Serpentine

Black Pakistan Cobra, 2010
Photograph (c)Mark Laita. Courtesy Fahey|Klein Gallery

Photograph (c)Mark Laita. Courtesy Fahey|Klein Gallery

Fahey|Klein Gallery will exhibit three new bodies of work from photographer Mark Laita: Amaranthine, Sea, and Serpentine. "In Amaranthine, Laita expertly documents over 100 species of birds from several natural history museums’ ornithological archives. Serpentine is a collection of images of the seductive and mythological snake. And in Sea, his photographs reveal the ethereal and otherworldly nature of sea life. Sea, will be published by Abrams in the Fall/ Winter of 2011."
Fahey|Klein Gallery
July 28 - September 3

7.27.2011

SARA JANE BOYERS: Finding Chinatown

Stacked Chairs, Hanford CA 2009
Photograph (c) Sara Jane Boyers

Pork Delivered, Downtown NYC 2006
Photograph (c) Sara Jane Boyers

I am fascinated by the light, vibrance and history of the Chinatowns. The vitality of each living, changing community and the general welcoming nature of those who pass through inspire me always. –Sara Jane Boyers

"Sara Jane Boyers began this series, Finding Chinatown, in San Francisco in 2001, home to the oldest Chinatown in America and the largest Chinese community outside of Asia. This initial examination awakened Boyers’ childhood memories of visiting the Los Angeles Chinatown near her father’s downtown office, and inspired her to begin a tour of Chinatowns across North America. Over the past decade Boyers has photographed fifty Chinatowns in the United States and Canada."

Finding Chinatown | Photographs by Sara Jane Boyers
July 30 – September 3, 2011
CRAIG KRULL GALLERY, Santa Monica

7.24.2011

JEFF JACOBSON: The Last Roll + Melting Point

Photograph (c) Jeff Jacobson

Photograph (c) Jeff Jacobson

Shanghai, China, 2002 from the series Melting Point
Photograph (c) Jeff Jacobson

"In his book, Melting Point (Nazraeli Press, 2006), Jeff Jacobson writes of over 20 years observations of what he describes as “a meltdown period, when old norms of politics, religion and even photography are changing…. In working from the paradox of a curious melding of beauty and fear these photographs emerged.” Of Melting Point, Mark Feeney in the Boston Globe writes: “For all his theatricality, Jacobson is as much realist as expressionist. In strictly visual terms, these images are highly arresting. Seen also in technical terms, they become objects of wonder.”


from the series The Last Roll. Photograph (c) Jeff Jacobson

"In 2004, Jeff Jacobson was diagnosed with lymphoma...As Jeff recovered, “my photographic universe expanded to the yard, the street, the river and into Woodstock.” In 2006, Kodak announced it had discontinued the film, Kodachrome, that Jeff had used throughout his career. He purchased and stored as much film as he could. “Coming to the twin realizations that my time on the planet and my supply of film are both finite had a liberating effect on me.” Since then, Jeff has concentrated on what he holds most dear: his family, home and the earth. The Last Roll is a project that is just about complete and will be the content of his next book. Many of the images from this series will be seen for the first time at the Davis Orton Gallery."

Jac0bson's photographs are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis MN, George Eastman House, Rochester NY and the Smithsonian Institute, among others. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Time, Geo, Stern and Life. Jeff Jacobson Photography

Melting Point and The Last Roll
August 5– September 4
Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson NY

7.22.2011

BAI HUA: Observable Imagination

from the series Observable Imagination
Photograph (c) 2011 Bai Hua/All Rights Reserved
(click images to enlarge)

from the series Observable Imagination
Photograph (c) 2011 Bai Hua/All Rights Reserved

from the series Observable Imagination
Photograph (c) 2011 Bai Hua/All Rights Reserved

Photographer Bai Hua, was born and raised in Haikou Shi, in the Hainan Province of China. He studied Art and Design at the Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, before recently completing his Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Digital Photography at The School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Hua describes himself as a naturally curious person. Driven by this curiosity in his series Observable Imagination, he describes the person in each photograph as performing a double role, as both the terminal of observation and the starting point of imagination. I was very impressed viewing Hua's very large prints (40" X 71") from this series, one of which is chosen for an upcoming group exhibition curated by Michael Foley (details below).


Gallery Exhibition | Curated by Michael Foley
October 21-Nov 12, 2011 | 209 East 23rd St, NYC

7.20.2011

BOJUNE KWON: Neurosis In The City

Photograph (c) Bojune Kwon/All Rights Reserved
(click images to enlarge)

Photograph (c) Bojune Kwon/All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Bojune Kwon/All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Bojune Kwon/All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Bojune Kwon/All Rights Reserved

In spite of the flood of people that inhabit the city, I am often struck by the difficulty of finding happiness and making real connections with others. However, I find myself getting used to a feeling of indifference to others, and think that it might be natural that people do not make every effort to know each other in this environment. My images of people, without clearly visible facial expressions, explore what I see as the nature of a city and our existence within it. I am interested in the neurosis that the modern city has generated. –Bojune Kwon
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Bojune Kwon is a freelance and fine-art photographer with a professional background in commercial photography. He was born in South Korea and majored in Photography at Kyungil University in Korea. He recently completed his Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Digital Photography at The School of Visual Arts and is now based in New York City.

Bojune explained how he creates his images, "
Each photograph is made up of a composite of about a hundred images taken in the same place. To capture the various facial expressions, I usually took six hundred photographs for one image." This work will be on display in an upcoming group exhibition curated by Michael Foley.


October 21-Nov 12, 2011
Gallery Exhibition | Curated by Michael Foley
209 East 23rd St, NYC

7.17.2011

SIMONE LUECK: Cuba TV

News Program
Photograph (c) Simone Lueck

The Last Supper
Photograph (c) Simone Lueck


"In 2000, I tagged along with a good friend on a two-week trip to Cuba. I took my 35mm camera and a bunch of film. The first thing I noticed in Havana was that the city was dark at night. There were no streetlights, porch lights or living-room lamps. It was pitch black except for the faint colorful glow spilling out of open doors everywhere, and it came from the TVs.

During Broadcast hours, all TV's in Cuba are on, no matter if they are being watched or just serving as background noise. The TV sets themselves are outdated, Pre-Revolution relics imported from America or Russia, close to twenty years ago." –Simone Lueck, Cuba TV

7.15.2011

ROCIO SEGURA: When We Dream...

Photograph (c) Rocio Segura /All Rights Reserved

When we dream, our minds are free to do all the things we would never do in real life. The human brain creates a state of being in which our hidden fears and desires come to the surface. –Rocio Segura

Born in Santander, Spain, Rocio Segura received her Bachelor of Sciences in Media Studies in Madrid before assisting fashion photographers Jesus Cordero and Pablo Almansa; and collaborating with artists in Italy, London and New York. Ms. Segura recently completed her Masters of Professional Studies (MPS) in Digital Photography at The School of Visual Arts and is now based in New York City.


Current Exhibition:
“Prohibido Vivirin Collaboration with Okuda
through July 29, 2011
SC Gallery, Bilbao, Spain

Upcoming Group Exhibition:
October 21-Nov 12, 2011
Gallery Exhibition Curated by Michael Foley
209 East 23rd St, NYC


PURCHASE BOOK

7.13.2011

LENS CULTURE: International Exposure Awards Exhibition in Dumbo

Photograph (c) Jessica Hines, from the series My Brother’s War
Grand Prize, Portfolio Category

Photograph(c)Martine Fougeron, from the series Tête-à-Tête: After-Prom 09
Grand Prize, Single Image Category

Photograph (c) Julia Fullerton-Batten, Dressing Gown, 2009
Honorable Mention

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Lens Culture International Exposure Award-winners on display at VII Photo:
31 Contemporary Photographers

"An eclectic and diverse group show of award-winning photographic work by 31 photographers from 12 countries will be on display at VII Photo. An international jury of seven photography experts selected the winning photographs from more than 6,500 photographs submitted by photographers in 47 countries." Jim Casper, founder of the Awards, said: "The winning photos represent a truly multifaceted snapshot of contemporary photography as it is being practiced in various cultures around the world today.”

Portfolio Category Award Winners: Grand Prize: Jessica Hines, 2nd Prize: Carolle Benitah, 3rd Prize: Louisa Marie Summer. Single Image Category Award Winners: Grand Prize: Martine Fougeron, 2nd Prize: Albertina d’Urso, 3rd Prize: Anne Berry. Honorable Mention Awards (in alphabetical order): Susan Bank, David Carol, Ellie Davies, Frank Day, Bruno De Cock, Margaret de Lange, Dan Dubowitz, Joachim Froese, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Kevin Greenblat, Daisuke Ito, Mary Shannon Johnstone, David Lazar, Sebastian Liste, Adam Magyar, Rania Matar, Justin Maxon, Bill McCullough, Marcia Michael, David Rochkind, Julian Roeder, Evzen Sobek, Miki Soejima, Ian Teh, Jan von Holleben

VII Gallery
28 Jay Street, Dumbo-Brooklyn, NY

July 14-September 2

7.12.2011

KAI WANG: INTERSECTION


Photograph (c) Kai Wang /All Rights Reserved
(click images to enlarge)

Photograph (c) Kai Wang /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Kai Wang /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Kai Wang /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Kai Wang /All Rights Reserved

For the first few days after I arrived in New York from Taipei, I was in an almost hallucinatory state—the combined effect of jet lag and unfamiliarity with a city for which I had always had a long‐distance affection. I was overwhelmed by all the sights I knew only from movies, TV, and photographs.–Kai Wang
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After finishing his bachelor’s degree in psychology and working as a professional photographer in Taipei for years, Taiwan-born Kai Wang moved to New York City to refine his artistic vision.

Recipient of awards for his work, Wang is sought after for his high level of technical expertise. He specializes in product and still life photography, as well as architectural subjects and interiors.
He recently completed his Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Digital Photography at The School of Visual Arts and is now based in New York City as a commercial photographer. This work will be on display in an upcoming group exhibition curated by Michael Foley (details below).

Kai-Wang Photography

October 21-Nov 12, 2011
Gallery Exhibition | Curated by Michael Foley
209 East 23rd St, NYC

7.11.2011

CYNTHIA MATTHEWS: Bird Dog Country

Photograph (c) Cynthia Matthews /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Cynthia Matthews /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Cynthia Matthews /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Cynthia Matthews /All Rights Reserved

This world of bird dog field trials, which originated in the Deep South, exists all across the nation and encapsulates a very unique sliver of Americana. You have dogs competing – running through fields, prairies or woods hunting for quail, pheasant or partridge – followed by men on horses, followed by spectators on horses, followed by me.– Cynthia Matthews

Bird Dog Country: 1985 to 2001

I met Cynthia Matthews sometime back at ASMPNY Fine Art Portfolio Review. As she explained, "It all began in 1985 when I was sent on assignment by Town & Country Magazine down to Tennessee to photograph the National Bird Dog Championships - some call it the Kentucky Derby of bird dog trials. I got hooked and the "addiction" led to many different locales in addition to Tennessee: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Dakota, North Dakota, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Jersey and New York." Cynthia Matthews Website.

7.10.2011

RAY GRASSE: Nocturnal Series No. 7

from Nocturnal Series No. 7
Photograph © 2011 Ray Grasse

from Nocturnal Series No. 7
Photograph © 2011 Ray Grasse


Ray Grasse is a Chicago-based photographer, writer and musician. He recorded and performs this bluesy-style song, On My Way Back Now, to accompany his photographs. Judith Wiker created the photo montage.


7.09.2011

JANELLE LYNCH: Los Jardines de Mexico


View Janelle Lynch's El Jardine de Mexico Portfolio

Janelle Lynch has received recognition for her large-format photographs of the urban and rural landscape. Widely exhibited, her work is in several public and private collections including the George Eastman House Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Fundación Vila Casas, Barcelona, and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Salta, Argentina.

Aperture Foundation hosts a Book Signing in NYC July 21, 7-9PM

DAVID FAHEY: Hasted Kraeutler Gallery

Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Coyocán, Mexico City, 1982
Photograph © David Fahey

Fahey/Klein Gallery owner David Fahey's beautiful portrait of Photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo is hanging in the current exhibition, Don't Quit Your Day Job, showing work BY Gallery owners. Also included are Brian Clamp, Janet Russek, and Jack Shainman, among others. A must see if you are in NYC this summer.
Hasted Kraeutler Gallery, New York
July 7 - August 19


7.03.2011

ANNE WILKES TUCKER: Curator of Photography The Museum of Fine Arts Houston


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Anne Wilkes Tucker was named “America’s Best Curator,” by Time Magazine a decade ago. Tucker, the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, may now be one of the foremost Curator’s of Photography in the world. Thanks to her curatorial wisdom, curiosity and scholarly research, she has built the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Photography Collection from virtually no photographs when she started in 1976, to one of the finest collections in the world. With over 26,000 images, including masters Andre Kertesz, Josef Sudek, Edward Steichen, Robert Frank and Diane Arbus, Tucker has also had the foresight to collect many lesser known international and emerging artists on the cusp of success whose careers have since taken off in the public eye.

This week, the first large-scale U.S. exhibition of Helmut Newton’s photographs will premiere at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston on July 3rd. The exhibition features the entire contents from Helmut Newton´s first three groundbreaking books: White Women (1976), Sleepless Nights (1978), and Big Nudes (1981). I spoke with Ms. Tucker just before she began hanging the upcoming Newton show.

Elizabeth Avedon: How did the Helmut Newton show originate?

Anne Wilkes Tucker: The Museum has a very close working relationship with Manfred Heiting. We purchased his Collection of photographs in 2002 and have continued to work with him since then. Heiting and Helmut Newton were close friends. In discussion with Helmut’s wife, June Newton, June came up with the idea of showing all the photographs in Newton’s first three books, which were really the beginning of his fame in the photo world. He had certainly been a fashion photographer before that, but White Women, Sleepless Nights and Big Nudes really cemented his influence and status, so that’s what we are showing. Manfred had organized a big show of Newton’s work in Berlin before that traveled all over Europe, but Newton had never really had a large show of his work in the U.S. ICP had had a smaller show, but this will be the first major exhibition of his work. Of the two hundred and six photographs in this show, some of them are very large at 6.5’ x 4.75’ feet. It will be a very full exhibition.

EA: What Newton images stand out for you in this exhibition?

Anne Wilkes Tucker: One of the things I thought was interesting that I enjoyed learning when I did the research for my essay in the show, was how Newton, not always, but frequently took the setting and models from a fashion shoot, and then after he’d done the work for the magazine, either disrobed the model or altered the dress, like slit it all the way up to the hip or something, how the boundary between those two lines kept shifting for him. Less in Big Nudes, as Big Nudes was a specific project that he did not for the fashion magazines, but something he conceived and carried out. But for Sleepless Nights and White Women they would sometimes start as fashion and he would take photographs for himself out of the same material, and how he redirected one in one direction, and one in the other, but knowing it’s market. (read more)

Beaumont Newhall, Hollis Frampton, Estelle Jussim, John Szarkowski, Anne Wilkes Tucker and Peter Bunnell: panelists for Ruth K. Shartle Memorial Symposium, October 26–28, 1979. Courtesy of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

EA: What was your professional history before the Museum of Fine Arts Houston?

Anne Wilkes Tucker: I majored in art history in college. I got interested in photography, so I was the photographer for the yearbook and the newspaper in college, and then got a second undergraduate degree as a photographer at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I didn’t think I was a very good photographer when I got around other photographers, so I moved across town where Nathan Lyons was beginning what became the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester. I got an MFA in photo history studying with Nathan and Beaumont Newhall at the George Eastman House (Newhall founded the Photography Department at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1935; and was Curator and Director of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester), and then I had an internship at the Modern (MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art) working with John Szarkowski and Peter Bunnell, so I was really lucky. And in the summers I was in graduate school, I worked in the Gernsheim Collection at the University of Texas. So in a very short period of time, I had access to the Collections at the Eastman House, at the Museum of Modern Art, and at the Gernsheim Collection. I really had an extraordinary exposure to the history of photography in those three Collections.

EA: In creating the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Photography Collection, were you influenced by your work with Newhall, who built the early MoMA Photography Collection?

Anne Wilkes Tucker: You just can’t separate the influence of Beaumont, Nathan and John. I learned such different approaches from all three. Beaumont was the historian. There’s so much more written about photography now than there was then. Back then it was a matter of spending hours and hours and hours going through original documents just to track down people. I learned from Beaumont how to do that and to organize it coherently and think about it and place it in context.

John, who was certainly one of the great writers, was not a researcher, he was not an historian the way Beaumont was, but John was such a disciplined thinker and he had such clear ideas about what was and what was not a photographer, or good photography.

Nathan was much more willing to look at a broad range of expressions in photography and embrace them. The kinds of shows that Nathan did were much more varied and much more universal than the kind of photographers that John embraced, so in a way working for the three of them so early forced me to find my own path. (read more)

Two of Tucker's over 40 books and essays
(left) Robert Frank: New York to Nova Scotia. (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and New York Graphic Society books/Little, Brown and Co, 1986). Editor: Anne Tucker. Associate Editor: Phillip Brookman. (right) Louis Faurer. (Merrell Publishers in association with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2002). Authors: Anne Wilkes Tucker with Lisa Hostetler and Kathleen V. Jameson

EA: How did your Robert Frank Exhibition in 1986 come about?

Anne Wilkes Tucker: In 1983-84 we were able to make some rather extraordinary acquisitions. We purchased Bill Larson’s Collection of Maholy-Nagy, and we purchased a private Collection of work around the Bauhaus, and we purchased the Collection of John Heartfield AIZ Magazines, and we purchased the complete set of Robert Frank’s The Americans. Part of the agreement with Robert Frank was in purchasing The Americans we’d be able to do a show. Robert asked I do the show with Philip Brookman, which I was happy to do, that began a friendship that continues today. He’s the Chief Curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. now. That show, and the film we did on Robert too, all came out of being able to purchase the set of The Americans. (read more)

Dr. Peter Marzio, Director of MFAH 1982-2010
Courtesy of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Audrey Jones Beck Building, North & West Facades. Architect: José Rafael Moneo. Photo: © MFAH

Anne Wilkes Tucker: Two things I would add. If I’m going to talk about mentors, and I’ve mentioned John and Nathan, I really have to mention Peter Marzio, who was my Director from 1982 to last Fall 2010 when he died suddenly.

When he came in 1982, the endowment was one million dollars, and when he died, the endowment was one billion. And that doesn’t include building two new buildings, finishing the Cullen Sculpture Garden (
designed by Isamu Noguchi), all the art we bought, or all the exhibitions that we did. So if I’m going to mention mentors, I’m going to mention Peter, because he was major. He understood the importance of Photography to the 20th century. He was just so supportive, there is no way I could have done research on Brassai for four years and research on Japanese Photography for five years without the generous support of the Museum. I got the credit, but he’s the one who stood behind us all and made it possible. He understood and he got it.

I had plenty of invitations to leave the Museum, but I always told Peter, “You stay, I’ll stay,” because he was such an extraordinary man and visionary Director, incredibly supportive of his staff and of all of us in terms of staying with us. Some of these projects had really up and down rides, not all of them came easily, and Peter stayed with us. If we were in it for the haul, then he was in it for the haul. He was such a brilliant man that he was really great to go to when you were struggling conceptually with something, to bounce ideas off of him.

The other was Director here, William Agee. Bill was the one who hired me. The delightful part is he was so supportive of photography. He grew up next door to Barbara Morgan (American photographer and co-founder of Aperture Magazine) and had seen photographs on the wall, and knew people who regarded themselves as artists who were photographers, from his early age. Before he came here, Bill was at the Pasadena Museum of Art where he also acquired photography.

Both men were wonderful; it’s just that Peter was here so much longer.
–La Lettre de la Photographie
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